A blog dealing with either the joy of cinema or the agony of cinema--nothing in between.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Dark Shadows

In the 1760s, the Collins family set out from Liverpool for the New World, where they found immediate success, establishing their fishing industry and founding the town of Collinsport, Maine. At the same time, their son Barnabas became quite the man about town, romancing many of the young ladies of the village, until he scorned the wrong one, who in turn cursed his entire family, turned him into a vampire, and buried him in the earth. 200 years later, his coffin was accidentally excavated and he returned to seek an end to his immortality and aid his dysfunctional descendants. "Dark Shadows" is a remake of a television series that ran from 1966-1971 and yet another collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, one that occasionally bears fruit ("Ed Wood", "Sweeney Todd"), but has mostly grown tiresome. Burton is a director who prioritizes visuals and his own sense of style over all us, and here that is once again the case as he becomes carried away and forgets certain little details like plot and character development, so much to the point that I think he even forgot that certain characters were even in the picture! There is also major problem with tones here, with the gothic Victorian ones blending with that of the dippy, psychedelic 70s supposed to be play laughs, but instead landing with a resounding thud. With that being said, the film is not a total waste. Depp is fun in the lead role and fellow Burton veterans Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter are good also. Two actresses I've admired, Chloe Grace Moretz and the beautiful Eva Green, seem curiously out of their depths. There's a time when all relationships must come to an end and, although there is a little to admire here, "Dark Shadows" is another sign that Depp and Burton should sever theirs.